Internet Safety and Ethical Use of Technology

“Internet Safety and Ethical Use of Technology” is a very hot
topic in education. Education is really on the front line of this
issue as there are challenges on all sides. Where are we in Illinois on this issue?

What are Illinois schools doing to help promote Internet Saftey? Do we really need to teach this issue? When do we begin teaching on these issues if they are important? What do we teach them? What programs are people using? Is Internet Safety an important issue or is it overblown in importance?

Sound off and let us know where you stand on this issue yourself, what you or your district is doing, and how we can all help each out on this topic!

3 Comments

I am trained in using iSafe – was one of the first ones to pilot it many years ago. Even before iSafe I used the Adventures of the Three cyberpigs created by a Canadian company. There are several very good free resources available. It’s important to educate the students so that they stay safe and legal on the internet. The iSafe program tries to empower students to make good decisions and help mentor others. Check out my wiki with links to various resources I use for teaching cybersecurity, copyright, cyberbullying, and more.

I believe Internet Safety is a huge issue with our children. Kids are becoming far too comfortable with chatting online to strangers. We have an FBI agent come in to speak with our students grades 5-8 to give them real life stories of how children met “friends” online and were abducted, raped or worse. It has made a great impact on our students and information they give online.

Internet Safety and ethical use of technology continue to be challenging issues because a vast majority of educators and parents are not knowledgeable enough to help our children make smart choices with the technology they are using. As a frequent presenter on topics related to Internet Safety and the use of Social Technology in education, I feel that we need to better educate teachers, administrators and parents about benefits and risks of social technology and Web 2.0 tools so they can be appropriately and safely integrated in classroom activities.